Richard Hammond Commutes in His 700 BHP TRUCK!

Hello, I'm just traveling into work at the smallest cog. Nothing complicated. Last time I did one of these commute videos, I had 700 horsepower. I still have, only it's in this Ram TRX. It's big. And in fact, it's the majestic scale of this truck that explains why I'm leaving for work from here, rather than from my yard over there, like usual. This truck won't fit in my yard. It is too big. Right, begin. Morning, everybody. It is quite noisy. I'm going to press the button to make it noisy. People need to know I'm leaving for work. It's important. Right, I'm off. Traveling. Oh, yeah. 707 horsepower from a 6.2 liter supercharged heavy V8 might sound like overkill in a pickup truck, but it does mean that this truck, which is bigger than the stable block I'm leaving behind, can dash from a standstill to 60 in 3.7 seconds. And who doesn't want that in their lives when you're driving to work? Yeah, work. Well, we've started filming again for the new series, and I hope you're enjoying it on TV, on Discovery+. But it doesn't mean the work stops when we're not filming. So it carried on in between series. We've been busy, and that's the key thing. We are busy. I mean, that's not all good, because it turns out being busy means you also have to be organized. And that's not necessarily a strength of mine. I get bored. So that's what I'm trying to do is tighten up, be efficient, make it work as a business. I can't stress enough. The smallest cog is a business. It has to function as a business. But I'm not necessarily a businessman. Oh, narrow bridge, this is scary, this bit. It does fit. I know it fits, but it's grown overnight. Key things you will have noticed, possibly, if you've seen the show already. We've taken on some more staff. That's good. But it also means yet more organization and coordination required. One of them is charged with doing some of that. And it's working. I mean, whisper it. But I think it's working. We're still looking to work on better stuff. I don't want to be rude. You know, if somebody dents their Corsa in the car park at Morrison's, it needs straightening out just as much as somebody's Lamborghini Miura. I get that. But I've always promised the lads from the day we set the business up, I would bring them cars to work on that they'd never worked on before. And it is interesting, isn't it? If your job is repairing cars, you'd think, well, they're all the same. And if you're restoring them, especially, the lads want to bring back to life something that's exciting, that's got some magic about it. And those are the cars I want to provide them. When I first set up The Smallest Cog, my only worry, really, apart from a massive amount of money is losing me, was that it might kill my love of cars. Because, yeah, they've always been my work for the last few decades. But that was work as a journalist, as a commentator. It was exciting, traveling the world, enjoying cars. This is working with them. It's trying to make money out of them. And I thought it might kill the magic. But in fact, the opposite has happened over the last year. I found myself more in love with cars and bikes than ever. Despite the fact that I now work with them, I work in the industry, I just, I'm fascinated by them. I'm more likely than ever to be found on a Sunday morning, getting up early to drag out an interesting old car or motorcycle and go off and get the papers. Than ever I was before. I have been to more car meets, more bike meets. I've been on more journeys just for the heck of it than ever I've done before. I'm loving it. And I don't think it's just because of the workshop. I think it's the times we're living in. I think what's happening to not just me, but a lot of us, is it's polarizing out, isn't it? Cars are polarizing into two things. One is just utilitarian, getting to work, to school. And one day that might well be an autonomous box that you don't own, that just turns up outside your house. It's like a sandwich box. You put yourself in it and it takes you where you want to go. That's great. That's, there's a space for that. I mean, I've spent the last 30 years commuting up and down the M4 to and from London. I would happily have handed that over to a box I sat in whilst I read the paper, did the crossword and scratched my arse. But on the other side of it, people are realizing, yeah, yeah, that's all well and good, but I don't want to get rid of my old VW Polo or whatever car it is. I quite like it. And then they're suddenly realizing, wait a minute, that makes me a car enthusiast. I didn't think I was. Which is why I think, I think our numbers are going to increase rather than decrease. I think it's going to be more of us. More of us who are realizing we adore, we love, and we are fascinated with these machines that move us bodily to where we want to be, to do what we want to do. They're the most exciting and I'd say important thing we've ever invented. These things facilitate everything that you need beyond the confines of your cave. You've got shelter, great, good. Anything else you need, food, supplies, resources, a mate, friendship, anything involves leaving that cave and going out there. And it involves getting there ideally first. So we invented a machine that could do that for us. And we still love it. And I think we always shall. It's why I think the future for the smallest cog and businesses like it will be great. Because, yeah, electric cars are coming. I've got no problem with them. They can be amazing. They're fascinating things. I've owned several. I enjoy them. But they're not the entire answer. There's 1.3, 1.4 billion cars already on the road. And in an era in which we've got to be more about make do and mend. Well, the most important things we can make do and mend is our cars. We should be repairing jeans and shirts rather than having them remade by somebody else's children on the other side of the world. But the same for our cars. No matter how efficient and clean a new car is, you've still got to source the resources to make it, to build it. Well, if you can get an old one and give that another 10 years of life, that's pretty cool. Obviously, commuting to work in a truck of this size and of this power, it's a slightly provocative act right now. And I am this year going to have to address the issue of the future. I mean, we're a workshop repairing gas-guzzling cars. Well, that's all very much under the microscope. I think this year things are going to move on. And it's something I want to reflect through the workshop. I do want to look at it because, yes, I love cars, but I also quite like the planet. I live on it, so do my daughters. And there are many, many developments, not just electric cars. It's broader than that. Electric cars are part of it. Of course they are. But there's new e-fuels coming along. There's hydrogen combustion. So I do need to look into that, really do. It's important. I can't just... We can none of us afford to have our heads in the sand and hope it'll all go away. It ain't going away. The business has been running a couple of years now, and it's become part of my life. I don't feel sort of so out of place doing it anymore. There was a time when it first started that if we were at a car show, I automatically assumed, well, I'm just there like I've been to them for years for a TV show. Well, no, wait a minute, I'm not. I'm there representing my own business. I want us to find our place in this industry. It's not a small industry. Billions of pounds a year is spent on classic cars and around the industry. It's serious. And I think we are finding our place. Obviously, what we've got to do is build a name. And to do that, we need the right jobs. We need the customers with cars that come and say to us, right, this is a beautiful car. I want it made perfect. And I'll go all the way with it. Whenever it costs, let's have it. That's the dream customer. And again, not because I would make more money. If I've got 100 hours to sell, I can sell them to 10 customers, 10 hours each, or all 100 to one. Money in the end will be the same, but the satisfaction will be different. Other things that have happened since the last series, well, works carried on in the workshop. I've taken up golf. Yeah, I've said it. It's big about turn. I've spent the last few decades mocking it quite strongly. But then I had a go and thought, actually, I'd love to be good at this. I'm not good at it, but I'm going to be practicing. So that's a change. Another development. I've bought a Jaguar, but it's a Jaguar I've owned before. I sold it about 10 years ago, maybe more. It's an XJR. And I sold it because I wasn't using it enough. Very low mileage, beautiful car. And then I missed it. And then a while ago, a friend of mine spotted it, said it was up for sale, advertised as once owned by Richard Hammond. So I rang the guy selling it and said, look, I'd love to buy it back, but I don't really want to pay a premium for it because it was once owned by me. So if you can get that premium, brilliant, help yourself. But if you don't, and he didn't, because he wants a car just because it's been owned by me. So I bought it back for a sensible price, and I'm loving it. Going to be restoring that. So whilst I've sold more cars than I've bought back in order to keep the business going, I have gained one. I never thought when I started in radio at 18 at BBC Radio York that 35 years later, I'd be commuting to work in a 700 horsepower pickup truck to a classic car restoration business on the outskirts of Hereford. I couldn't have told you where Hereford was. Isn't life funny? Nearly there. So as you rejoin us at the workshop over on the TV show, the headline news is we're still here. We are busy now. And I guess now it's all become about learning to manage that, learning to be efficient, grown up, learning to be a proper business. But take heart. We're still loving it. In fact, I love the cars more than ever. I think my massive truck fits through the gates. A massive supercharged pickup truck makes for a slightly different commute. That was fun. And I shall now go in there to see what's happening in the smallest corner. And if you want to do the same, find out what's been going on, you can do that by watching the TV show. Click the link in the description.